Many deer hunters in the South lease property from corporations that do not prioritize wildlife management, but often allow them to cultivate food plots. This is vital because the industrial timberlands that provide a large portion of Dixie’s hunting opportunities are vast pine plantations. They contain large numbers of deer, but these even-age pine tracts limit the amount of natural forage available during late fall and winter.

Cutovers are awash with green forage, but they offer no shelter for the first two or three years. After opening weekend of the firearms season, deer enter them only at night.

A general lack of nutrition in pine plantations limits body weights and, ultimately, antler development. Where legal, hunters in the South rely heavily on supplemental feeding, such as bagged corn or pellets. That’s better than nothing, but it’s temporary because most hunters feed deer only during the hunting season.

Cory Gray is the deer project leader for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, which was recently honored as the Quality Deer Management Association’s Agency of the Year.

He says that feeders certainly provide some benefits for deer in pine environments, but it simply is not possible to put out enough feed to nourish an entire deer herd. Green forage is best, but in industrial woodlands, hunters must provide it themselves.

“A deer eats 8 pounds of vegetation per day, so you want to try to maximize the amount of forage on your property,” Gray said. “That’s where food plots come in.”

The challenge in industrial timberlands is finding places to put food plots, but some of the best locations are largely overlooked. Thinned areas in older pine plantations offer limitless potential. Plots in thinned pine rows are narrow — less than 75 feet wide — and are bordered by trees and brush, so deer enter them confidently. A typical agricultural food plot, by comparison, is usually wide and open. Deer nibble cautiously around the edges and often enter them only at dusk.

Hunters often avoid putting food plots in plantations because it requires a lot of work, but it’s a great way to convert an inert woodland stand into a major whitetail destination. While the focus of this article is improving pine lands, these practices apply to woodlands wherever whitetails live.

“There’s always an improvement you can do for your property,” Gray said. “If you can plant a food source, it’s not going to be a magic bullet that’ll grow big antlers on your deer overnight, but food plots are going to produce more food than a corn feeder, and they will attract deer.”

That is important in forests that otherwise have nothing to draw and concentrate deer in specific places.

Deer Magnets

When I joined the Old Belfast Hunting Club in the northern Gulf Coastal Plain of Arkansas, my first stand was in a hollow between two young, even-age pine thickets. There were three clearings that served as shooting lanes that radiated from my tower stand. A few nearby oaks threw acorns during October and early November, but deer, squirrels and other animals cleaned them up quickly.

Once the acorns were consumed, deer abandoned that area despite my use of a corn feeder. That was my only stand at that point, so I knew I had to improve the stand area to improve hunting success.

With only a four-wheeler, an ATV-specific disc harrow and a pruner, I transformed that spot in the span of about two weeks during mid-August. Since the lanes were established, discing was easy, and the four-wheeler rig easily negotiated the tight quarters.

With the seed bed prepared, I spread 200 pounds of hydrated lime and 100 pounds of 13-13-13 fertilizer. Since it was a very small plot, my daughter and I applied the lime and fertilizer with gloved hands. I used the ATV disc to till the lime and fertilizer into the soil a couple of days later, and then used a crank spreader to sow a seed mix from the Whitetail Institute of North America called Imperial Whitetail Secret Spot. It is formulated for semi-shady spots such as this and includes four types of clover, two types of rapeseed and two types of rye and chicory. I also added wheat and oats, and then trod them lightly into the ground with my feet.

That was an inefficient method, but it was necessary because of time constraints. I timed it right, though, because Hurricane Isaac irrigated it shortly after. The plot came up lush and green, and it remains that way with minimal maintenance. Better yet, it attracts deer late in the season, when I rarely saw them before.

Feed and Attract Year Round

Chris Eubanks of Edmond, Oklahoma, is an owner and marketing manager for Thomas Ag Services in Crabtree, Oregon. He served as communications director for the Whitetail Institute, and was also a sales manager and forage agronomist for Land O’ Lakes. He says that managing food plots involves more than just attracting deer during the hunting season. If managed correctly, food plots are an economical way to feed and attract deer year round.

“Do you want an annual something that will grow quickly that you can hunt over during deer season?” Eubanks asked. “Or do you want a perennial that will be there for several years — something that will attract deer, help with their diet and improve their nutrition for bigger antlers and body weights?”

Either way, you’ll get better results if you have a soil test done before putting seeds in the ground, Eubanks says. Gray concurred.

“I always recommend a soil test regardless of soil type,” Gray said. “It’s free from your extension service. The soil in pine woods is likely to be acidic, so you’ll want shade tolerant species because you won’t have sunlight on them all of the time. Work with your county extension agent. They’ll know what to plant.”

Eubanks recommends getting the soil test four months before you prepare the seed bed because it generally takes two to six months for lime to fully sweeten the soil. Soil types vary by state and region, of course, so there’s not a set formula. For example, most soils in Arkansas are acidic, in the lower 5pH range, with 7pH being neutral.

Morgan Richardson, manager for recreational leases for Campbell Global, LLC, was formerly a wildlife biologist for International Paper in Arkansas. In the northern Gulf Coastal Plain, he said it will probably take 2 tons of lime per acre to boost soil pH, but your county extension agent can tailor liming recommendations for your area.

“Pelletized lime may be a better option,” Richardson said. “Pelletized lime is made from the same material as agricultural  lime and can be applied with any fertilizer spreader. Pelletized lime is ground to a much finer consistency and formed into pellets with a water soluble binder. 

“About 500 pounds of pelletized lime would be required to boost the pH for a one-acre plot. Pelletized lime will boost the pH quicker — one month versus four months — but the duration of its benefit will be much shorter, typically a single growing season.”   

Near-neutral pH will also empower your plants to better compete with weeds and improves the forage quality of the plot, Eubanks says.

“I’ve seen tests that range from ½ to 4 tons per acre,” Hicks said. “If you’re in south Arkansas piney woods that haven’t been touched in some time, it could take 4 tons per acre.”

A large block of untouched piney woods is precisely where my favorite stand sits at the Old Belfast Club. It’s a middle-aged pine plantation that was thinned two years ago. Loggers removed every third row of pines, leaving long, open lanes that are ideal for long, narrow food plots.

The biggest obstacle initially is removing the stumps of the cut pines. This is necessary to avoid damaging the ATV disc, but the sheer number of stumps makes this an ongoing process.

It takes several years for stumps to rot, so it must be done by hand — one stump at a time — with a shovel and an axe. My four-wheeler and winch perform the final extraction.

That’s better cardio exercise than I can get on a treadmill or stationary bike, and it’s a full-body workout. It’s like going to the gym a couple of days a week in a place that I dearly love. If your thinned strip is in a place accessible to heavy equipment, you can do the job quicker and more efficiently.

The other obstacle is the expense of the lime and fertilizer. Bagged lime costs about $120 to $150 per ton, but you can save about $50 per ton if you buy in bulk.

Since this spot is not accessible by truck, I tow a mechanical spreader behind my four-wheeler. This device works better with pelletized lime because powdered lime tends to cake and clog the vents.

While the lanes are sunny now, they’ll grow shadier as the pines age and spread their crowns. I have to look a few years ahead to know what to plant now.

“One of the best plot options for shady areas is a white clover product because it’s very shade tolerant, it lasts for many years and deer find it very attractive,” Eubanks said.

Eubanks also recommends mixing in turnips, rape and kale, as well as cereal grains and annual clovers. Those species provide nutrition during fall and winter when other food sources might disappear.

Maintenance is important after the plot sprouts. Our landowner prohibits herbicides, but we can use pruners and chainsaws to remove thin-diameter brush and non-pine saplings. A gas-powered trimmer takes care of weeds.

It sounds like a lot of work, and it is. On the other hand, all of that extra time in the woods allows me to observe deer and note their movements in the area during non-hunting months. With all the logging that occurs in these woods, they are accustomed to a heavy human presence. My food plot activities don’t bother them a bit. In fact, I think they like it.

— Bryan Hendricks is the outdoors editor for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in Little Rock, Arkansas. He is an avid deer hunter who covers all aspects of deer management in the Natural State.

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